Shielded electrical connectors are available in a wide variety of configurations for RF and EMI shielding of the interior components of the connectors as well as protecting surrounding electronic components. One type of shielded connector includes a dielectric body having an opening for receiving a mating electrical connector, and a sheet metal shield surrounds at least part of the housing. This type of connector often is used as a semiconductor connector and may be mounted to a printed circuit board. The shield often has one or more spring fingers bent back into the opening in the housing for engaging a grounding component on the mating connector.
For instance, the dielectric housing may be formed in a cubic configuration, with the opening being either rectangular or circular for receiving the mating connector. The sheet metal shield usually has a front plate portion for engaging the front face of the housing and flange portions extending rearwardly and overlying one or more of the side walls of the housing. One such semi-conductor connector includes a plurality of the grounding spring fingers extending into the opening inside one of the side walls of the housing, a flange portion extending rearwardly over the outside of the side wall, along with a locking finger portion projecting into a locking recess in the outside of the side wall. A problem encountered with such a structural combination is that, in some instances, when the mating connector is inserted into the opening in the housing to compress or bias the grounding spring fingers outwardly toward the inside of the housing side wall, the locking finger portion of the shield has a tendency to lift out of the locking recess on the outside of the housing side wall. This invention is directed to solving this problem by an improved locking means.
Another problem with shielded connectors of the character described is that they sometimes employ locking tabs which project into slots in the housing, the locking tabs being stamped with a lance configuration for engaging the plastic material of the housing within the slots. In other words, such shields are stamped and formed from sheet metal material. The locking tabs are generally planar. The tabs are stamped to have barbs or lances projecting from their edges for grippingly engaging the housing within the slots. With the ever-increasing miniaturization of semi-conductor connectors, it is very difficult to stamp a planar locking tab with edge locking barbs which, in combination with the extremely small tolerances in molding slots in a plastic housing, results in very little locking effect by such stamped locking tabs. This invention also is directed to solving those problems by an improved configuration of a locking tab for a sheet metal shield.